


Monochromatic

by shirosquared



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Gen, Langst, a major theme, death is prevalent, lifelong promises, matt pilots a lion, promise to oneself, shiro is found, someone's life flashes before their eyes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 11:55:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10639347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shirosquared/pseuds/shirosquared
Summary: Ever since he was younger, Lance had promised himself that he'd always put his family first. When his family is in danger, it's no surprise to himself that he threw himself in headfirst to save them, but the outcome had been the opposite of what he'd wanted.





	

Lance didn’t expect to find Shiro, especially since they had no leads on where he could possibly be or even what happened to him in the first place. For all they knew, Shiro could already be dead, and they’d just be chasing loose threads that are too short to weave the picture together. The thread had been pulled, and now the whole embroidery was falling apart. In this case, the thread was Shiro and the embroidery had been the rest of Team Voltron, even Voltron itself.

None of them had been the same since Shiro vanished. Keith had thrown himself fully into leading the team, though it was clear that he placed his priorities in finding Shiro, chasing those loose threads, rather than following the path that had been laid out for them since the beginning: defending the universe. Pidge had locked herself in the lab and refused to leave unless it was an emergency, tracking any leads that they dug up to find either Shiro or her missing family, Sam and Matt Holt. Hunk was more withdrawn and put his entire effort into everything he did, maybe as an attempt to distract himself, but he was still at least speaking to most of the team in passing.

Allura had become distracted, helping Keith track down clues about Shiro as well as act as a co-leader to Team Voltron, as she always had, though now it was more noticeable by the way Keith would look to Allura before making a big decision. Coran, too, had been affected. He made less strange references, and tried harder to help the team in any way he could. Recently, he’d started piloting the Red Lion in Keith’s place, since Allura was needed to pilot the castle and thus couldn’t pilot a lion without removing a key asset to their quick escapes.

Lance, rather than following them into his own self-pity, blaming himself for what he could’ve done, decided that he was going to be the anchor. He made sure each of them ate properly and took time to sleep, even if that meant he had to force them away from what they were doing. He would spar with Keith, getting beat up if only to allow the other to vent his frustration and get a decent conversation in. He quickly became a leg, supporting the team when they couldn’t support themselves. He didn’t mind, though – it was the one thing that he _could_ do, having come from a large family.

Lance had decided long ago that he would always put his family before himself.

* * *

“ _Lance! Come in, say something!”_

“ _Lance, where are you?!”_

“Lance!”

Lance groaned. All he could feel was pain, barely even registering his teammates calling out to him. Despite the pain, however, he grinned up at Shiro, his comms having been damaged so that he could receive transmissions but not send them. “Good to… see you again.”

“Lance, stay with me – don’t you dare close your eyes!”

Lance shut his eyes.

“ _Lance, over here! Come look through the telescope, Mamá says we have to leave soon!” He was ten, spending time with his family at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. They’d managed to convince their mom to take them there all the way from Cuba to see the famous museum. He looked through the telescope, seeing all of the constellations up in the sky. They were beautiful, truly._

_That was when he’d decided he wanted to be an astronaut._

_Then he was twelve, making star charts of the sky and watching the moon phases to see when he could find other planets in the starry night, drawing pictures and trying to render each planet from the ground. “We’re too far away!” he’d always said. “I want to get closer, I want to see the stars!”_

_He never realized how much he’d miss home until he was no longer able to return._

_He was fourteen, entering his freshman year in high school. He’d gotten into the private school he’d wanted to go to ever since he first saw the sky through that telescope – they had an exceptional astronomy program. He was going to be at the top of the class, he decided. That would get the Galaxy Garrison to notice him, wouldn’t it?_

_He wondered, if he had known what was going to happen back then, would he still have applied to the Garrison?_

_He was seventeen, clutching his acceptance letter tightly in his hands. “Mamá, I got accepted! I got into the Garrison! I’m gonna be a fighter pilot!” He grinned infectiously, his mother’s smile widening as she pulled him into a tight hug. She told him how proud she was of him, that he’d make a great fighter pilot, and that she’d be there for his first takeoff._

_He wished that he could still ask her to be there for him, to see what he’d become a part of._

_He was seventeen, staring at the rankings in disbelief. Cargo pilot? He was a cargo pilot? He hadn’t been good enough for even the bottom of the class? What would he tell his mother? She had been so excited for him, and he had only fueled that. What if he wasn’t good enough to be a fighter pilot? What if she hated him because of it? Was he just a disappointment? When his parents called, he put on a wide grin. “I’m a fighter pilot! I made the cut!”_

_He’d always regretted lying to them._

_He was eighteen when Keith suddenly vanished from the Garrison, and Lance was mysteriously bumped up to fighter class. It wasn’t exactly a mystery for long, however, since Commander Iverson had never let him forget that all he was was a replacement for Keith, who had the skills but not enough discipline to stay there._

_He wasn’t a replacement anymore, they all had their own places in the team._

_He was eighteen when he crept up to the roof with Hunk, finding Pidge there. They’d found Keith and rescued Shiro, taking him out to Keith’s shack in the desert where the Garrison couldn’t find them. They tracked the energy source, Lance gained a new family member named Blue, and they left Earth that day to worlds unknown._

_He wished that his mother could’ve seen his first takeoff, as she had promised she would._

_He was eighteen the first time they formed Voltron and gained the title of Paladins. It had been surprising to all of them, but they’d accepted it fairly easily and moved on to defend the universe from Zarkon’s reign._

_He wondered if his team had become more of a family to him than his real family had been – he told them things that even his mother didn’t know, and he told her everything._

_He had turned nineteen shortly after Shiro almost had the Black Lion stolen from him, after they all were separated by the destabilized wormhole. They had seen mermaids, mind control by hypnosis, and a plant that was actually a killer sea monster._

_Lance wished that it could’ve lasted longer – those had been the simple times, before everything got messed up._

_He was nineteen when Shiro disappeared into thin air, with no trace as to where he’d been. While everyone else had struggled finding themselves, Lance had been taking care of all of them. They were his main priority, and they always had been. He had been following leads on Shiro whenever he could, but also made sure that the Paladins of Voltron did what they were supposed to do._

_He had always been good at deflecting feelings onto himself, and used that skill to his advantage to hold the team together._

_He was twenty when they invaded a Galra battle cruiser. He had gone alone, getting the directions from Pidge back at the Castle. Keith, Hunk, and Coran were covering him from the outside, having been his distraction to get him inside. He’d been searching for information, headed for the main computer console, when he had been stopped by an all too familiar person. Shiro had stood in his way, his eyes cold and condescending. At his side was the Galran Prince Lotor, though Lance guessed that since Zarkon was dead that Lotor would now be the emperor._

_He smiled to himself, realizing how stupid he’d been._

_He had called out to Shiro, trying to get him to regain his sense of self. Lotor hadn’t taken kindly to this, of course, which was how he ended up with the first wound that would contribute to his end: a swipe of his clawed hand across Lance’s chest. It hadn’t been deep, but it had been painful enough to rid Lance’s mind of any plan he might’ve had. “Shiro, please!” he begged, not above doing exactly that if that was what it took to get their leader back._

_He saw Shiro’s face, flickering between a dark grin and a kind smile – why was he having trouble distinguishing the two?_

_Shiro’s Galra hand glowed purple, and he started towards Lance. Lance formed his shield, ready to defend himself even though he was a long range fighter. “Shiro, I don’t want to hurt you!” Shiro’s expression changed for a moment – was that fear Lance saw? – before it changed back to the same smile he’d had. Shiro’s human hand wrapped itself around Lance’s throat, lifting him off the ground as he kept his Galra hand positioned beneath Lance’s chin to keep him still. Lance coughed as he struggled anyway, his lungs desperate for air. His flight suit was slick with blood, and his armor chest piece was torn from where Lotor had scratched him, which only helped to weaken him quicker._

_Briefly, Lance wondered that if he’d been closer to Shiro that he could’ve pulled him out of the trance that Lotor had put him under._

_Lance struggled weakly against Shiro’s grip, trying to get him to let go, but he quickly realized that he had no chance at overpowering him. Instead, he went limp as an attempt to act like he had passed out. It worked, of course, and Shiro let him go. Lance collapsed to his knees, coughing weakly as he struggled to get air in. He took shallow breaths, looking at Shiro desperately. For a moment, he thought he saw a bit of hesitance, but then he heard it. “I suppose I don’t have much of a use for you anymore, do I?” Lotor raised his sword, and in that moment Lance knew._

_He’d always promised himself that he’d put others’ lives in front of his own, especially if they were family._

_Lance forced himself up, throwing himself in front of Shiro and taking the hit. He collapsed almost immediately, the hilt having slammed into his helmet before the blade caught him. The hard hit damaged the microphone on his helmet, as well as probably gave him a concussion, but they had bigger problems. He’d watched Shiro’s expression change from stoic to shocked to horror, kneeling down at Lance’s side. “_ _Lance!”_

_He remembered hearing Shiro’s cries, the shouts from his teammates, and seeing Lotor’s satisfied smirk._

_He remembered shutting his eyes, feeling the world fade from fuzzy to nothingness._

What he didn’t remember was standing beside Shiro, watching as his fist clenched before he charged Lotor in a fit of mad rage. The two clashed with ringing metallic sounds, flickers of purple light, and from the beginning it seemed as though they were evenly matched. It only seemed that way for a few moments, before Shiro’s anger won out over his fear and he stopped holding himself back.

They fought for what seemed like hours to Lance, but probably was only a few minutes, before Shiro managed to get a good hit in on Lotor. His hand, glowing a fluorescent purple, cut a deep gash in his armor plate and in his chest as well. Lotor stumbled back, but Shiro followed him, moving to attack his face. Lance wished he could stop Shiro, but he just passed right through him. This hadn’t been what he wanted… why couldn’t Shiro stop? The two images were starting to blend together, like someone had superimposed them on top of each other.

Lotor used some device that Lance had never seen before to escape from Shiro, and Lance felt guilty for being grateful of that. As much as he disliked Lotor and Zarkon’s empire, he didn’t like to see his teammate lose himself like that. After Lotor was gone, Shiro seemed to come back to himself and realize exactly what he’d done.

Lance hated the look of grim satisfaction that Shiro wore on his face.

Shiro’s expression changed to one of pain as he looked back at Lance’s body – was that what he looked like? Even he had to admit, he looked really bad – and moved to pick him up. Shiro carried Lance bridal style, running towards one of the exits. Lance floated alongside them, feeling strangely disconnected from them. He guessed that that feeling was normal, considering that he had _died_.

However, even as the others found Shiro and Lance’s body, Lance couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction.

He had protected his family, even if it meant himself dying.

He had achieved his one and only promise to himself.

The view of the team slowly faded from Lance’s eyes as his mind shut down, finally getting to rest easy.


End file.
